


The Right Person for the Job

by GretchenSinister



Series: My Top 10 Rise of the Guardians Otherships & Crossovers Fics [4]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), Silent Hill (Video Game Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 00:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18435560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Jack Frost goes to Silent Hill to spread snow, all hell breaks lose.Jack has issues begging to physically manifest themselves as perverse and corrupted monsters. His powers get downsized, and plenty of helpings of angst are very much appreciated."So…I didn’t get the angst bonus. In fact, I don’t think I treated this with the desired gravity at all. But, anyway: how Jack gets lost in Silent Hill, and who shows up to get him out.





	The Right Person for the Job

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 3/9/2015.

_“…and if you run into anything you’re not sure about, you’ll call us, right?” Tooth asked anxiously._  
  
“This will really work, huh?” Jack said, passing his staff from one hand to the other. It looked like it always had, but all the other Guardians had done something to it so he could use it as a signal to call them, like North’s aurora. “That’s great, but I mean, really, guys–I already defeated Pitch with all of you, do you really think I’ll run into something I can’t handle?”  
  
Bunny, Tooth, and North turned to Sandy. “We still haven’t spent much time in the field lately,” Bunny admitted. “So we don’t know for sure.”  
  
Very possible, Sandy signed. As a Guardian, you’ll see more, and more will see you. I’m out every night, and even I don’t know everything that’s out there.  
  
“Okay, okay. I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine, though. See you all in a week?”  
  
“A week,” Jack muttered to himself. Great. And how was he supposed to know how long a week was, in a town completely enveloped in dense fog and darkness? How were the other Guardians supposed to find him in such conditions? He shoved his hands in his sweatshirt pocket. How had he managed to get himself into such a mess in the first place?  
  
Well, the answer to that  _seemed_  relatively simple. Why he couldn’t get out of it was a more difficult question. He had been flying above the Northeastern United States, spreading some snow here and there, even if it was a little early for it. And then one town, wrapped in fog, had really drawn him in. Naturally, since it was just a town, he had decided to indulge his curiosity.  
  
He had seen the sign slip by below him–apparently the town was called Silent Hill–and then he fell straight out of the sky and onto the road. The fall had knocked the staff from his hands and into a clump of insubstantial…things. Jack had sized them up against the horror that filled him, decided he would have been willing to take one but not a crowd, and hightailed it out of there.  
  
So, new general rule, he thought. If you find yourself irresistibly drawn somewhere, resist that, and figure out what’s going on, first.  
  
Honestly, after this place, he didn’t think he’d forget that again. And even more honestly, he was kind of hoping this place  _did_  connect to Pitch’s lair, which was the only other place Jack could think of that would be so deserted except for monsters–the most recent variety of which had been frozen zombies, which moved slowly, but crackled horribly when they walked. A lot of them had been small.  
  
He shuddered. He didn’t wish this place on the Guardians, but what if they could only find his staff and not him? That is, if they could find either at all. No, he had to find the staff if he was going to get rescued at all—rescued, because he’d found nothing that looked like a way out so far.  
  
Usually finding the staff wouldn’t be hard. Usually he had a good idea of where it was at all times. Usually he wasn’t worried about what would get into his mind if he opened it. He ground his teeth. How did ordinary people look for things? Widening spirals from a central point, right? He glared at a non-functional street lamp and started circling it.  
  
He felt like he was getting closer when he pushed through a hole torn in the fence surrounding a community pool. It was mostly drained, save for a few feet of black water at the deep end. He frowned and wrapped his arms around himself. He really, really didn’t want to have to go into any water here. But if he didn’t search it…but if he  _did_ …  
  
“As always, you shine like a beacon,” a sarcastic voice said from across the pool.  
  
Jack’s heart lightened at the sound of the first intelligible voice other than his own that he’d heard in far too long, even if he realized belatedly that this should have been the last person he wanted to see.  
  
As if on cue, the fog cleared to reveal Pitch, though not as Jack had expected him. He reclined in the most functional of the cracked lounge chairs, under a large umbrella of pure shadow. However, and most notably, the pole of the umbrella was--

“My staff!” Jack yelled.  
  
“It must be closer to you than even I ever realized, if you could find it amidst all this,” Pitch said, gesturing at the surrounding fog and decay with a pair of shadow sunglasses. “Especially because I hate being alone. But,” he mused, chewing on the end of one of the sunglasses’ arms, “I was given some information that told me the water would draw you, here in this place. I wish I had known it before. Anyway.”   
  
“What are you doing here?” Jack asked, edging around the dry side of the pool to approach him.  
  
“Finding you, obviously. Here in Silent Hill, you’re not giving off anything that the others could use to find you, especially since you haven’t been sleeping. Especially since you’re not actually a child.” Pitch stood up and closed the shadow umbrella, encasing most of the staff in darkness. “And, yes, I am going to keep this for now,” Pitch said over Jack’s objections. “I was guaranteed that I would suffer no more than Silent Hill’s usual attacks, and giving you your staff back might break that bargain, and then I might have to leave you here. And that  _would_  be a pity, since the Guardians have given me a really fantastic bribe for bringing you home again.”  
  
“Fine.” Jack followed Pitch as he walked away from the pool still feeling like the deep end was calling him. “I just…can’t believe they went to  _you_  for help.”  
  
Pitch swung his umbrella over his shoulder, nearly hitting Jack in the head. “I thought the same thing when I saw you with them the first time,” Pitch said. “And they know as well as I do that I wouldn’t exist if I wasn’t sometimes the best person for the job. I got them all to admit that. That was part of my advance payment.”  
  
“So what was the rest of it?” Jack asked.  
  
“Never you mind,” Pitch said airily.  
  
“If it’s really bad, I–I won’t follow you out,” Jack said. The prospect was terrifying, but he wouldn’t do anything that led to someone being hurt, not even for his freedom. There had to be another way.  
  
“Ugh, I forgot how hair-trigger righteous you were,” Pitch groaned as he turned to look at Jack. “If I tell you now, will you even believe me?”  
  
“Maybe.”  
  
Pitch rolled his eyes. “I get to scare children to my heart’s content on alternate Tuesdays and Saturdays. Sandy and I are getting married. I have a standing invitation to North’s Christmas party. Bunny has to deliver 50 lbs of extra-dark chocolate to my lair every three months. Tooth has to arrange for me to become corporeal so that I can get a dental implant,” he deadpanned.  
  
“None of that is true!”  
  
“Well, neither is your suspicion that the Guardians would allow children to be hurt so that you could get out of here! They would have looked for you themselves if that was the bargain! Now will you follow?”  
  
Jack nodded sullenly.   
  
“Good.” Pitch turned away from him again. “You can ask the Guardians yourselves about the bargain I made with them. Just don’t ask if we’re almost out. Ever. The scenery won’t change but we’ll be back in the middle again.”  
  
“Why can’t we use one of your shadows?” Jack asked.  
  
“Because if I went into a Silent Hill shadow, I’d be alone,” Pitch said. “And I don’t think you’d be able to breathe.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> kazechama said: Hot damn, so what was the barbain? I love how easy Pitch came up with a list of what he wants from each guardian. I guessed this was all not accepted proposals.
> 
> bowlingforgerbils said: I enjoyed this. I love the imagery of Pitch lounging by the pool. And that last line is great.


End file.
